The 2025–26 Medicare enrollment season is underway, and healthcare spending has once again increased in the United States. According to recent reports, the total has surpassed $4.7 trillion this year, with prescription drug costs rising by nearly 9% compared to last year.
These increases directly impact Medicare patients, many of whom are retirees living on fixed incomes. On average, Medicare beneficiaries face $6,500 in annual out-of-pocket costs, making affordability a top concern across the country.
Some Medicare recipients, though, have taken advantage of negotiated price reductions and better coordination of benefits, said Meena Seshamani, the former deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“CMS is proud to have negotiated drug prices for people with Medicare for the first time,” Sehamani said. “These negotiations will not only lower the prices of critically important medications for cancer, diabetes, heart failure, and more, but will also save billions of dollars.”
